Generator Quit on Christmas! - Can we Fix it???

[@jessharriman3254]

Boy, That Wheel horse looks awful damn familiar. Looks EXACTLY like the one I accidently ran over a wire fence with, when I was 10 years old.

[@TractorFella]

I think you're right, hahah! Accidents happen 😄

[@benjamincresswell3713]

Very nice. I have a Generac that's fritzed and I need to figure it out. Your video has given me new inspiration to get after it. So thank you. War Story? I live in Michigan. We have a bridge connecting our Upper & Lower peninsulas. It's 5 miles long. After spending a week in Northern Ontario w/ wife & 2 kids boating & fishing on pristine Lake Pagawachuan, we had just started across it after stopping to pay the toll when smoke came out from under the hood of my car. The plastic idiot light sender for oil pressure had split open. There I was on the Mackinac Bridge w/a broken oil pressure sensor leaking oil onto the exhaust manifold. I pulled it out and sized it up to be 1/8 pipe thread. Then I realized my Mercury outboard motor on the boat I was towing had that size fitting on the fuel line where it connects to the Mercury style quick connect. So I cut the fuel hose & pulled the fitting out of that quick connect, put a 1/4" bolt in the hose & used a small fuel line screw type hose clamp to plug it. I screwed it into the car engine and w/ no oil light I drove the 5 miles across the bridge and exited in Mackinaw City to find and auto parts store. There are no auto parts stores in Mackinaw City. The next auto parts store was 15 miles away in Cheboygan but it was closing in 20 minutes. I begged the clerk to stay open until I got there. Driving the speed limit we got into Cheboygan but about 1 miles from the auto parts store the fuel hose popped and I lost all of my oil. It was a Chrysler and they always oil their hydraulic lifters first to quiet them quickly. Well by the time I pulled into the auto parts store parking lot the lifters were clatering like all-get-out and the store clerk was turning the key in the door lock to leave. But he opened back up to get me the pressure sensor. I had to beg him to sell me 5 quarts of oil, and I bought a new oil filter too. The Chrysler big V8 oil filter was easy to get to so I did a complete oil change w,/ filter after I installed the new pressure sensor w/ out ever pulling the oil pan drain plug. We still had 237 miles togo before we got home. My wife never even batted an eye lid. I guessed she figured I knew what I was doing. She left a few years later. Maybe she was lying about that experience too. ben/ michigan

[@TractorFella]

Hey Ben! I'm glad I inspired you. Good luck with the repairs. I bet you'll figure it out in no-time! That is a heck of a story! You're very ingenuitive to salvage that situation the way you did. Good on you for getting your family home safely. I'm sorry to hear that not all parties stayed around. 😔 Thanks for the comment, and good luck!!

[@judgeguilty]

Green eggs and ham for Christmas dinner. - Dr. Seuss approved!

[@TractorFella]

🥚 🐖 You got it!!

[@Maik1968]

Hello Aron, thanks for this end-of-the-year-tractor-fella-final-video 👍👍😂 Hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family! For 2024 I wish you now: „einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr“, as we say in Germany. A big hug to you and I’ll be waiting here for new videos in the tractor show where we know little to nothing about tractors 😘😘😂🌞🍀🪅🎉

[@TractorFella]

Hi Maik! Hahah I like it! I appreciate your comments and kindness over the last year. I also hope you and your family had an excellent Christmas. You deserve it! May you have a wonderful new year! See you then! 🤗🍾🎄👍🏻

[@shakes7333]

Thats a what's called a Murphy (probably under a different name now) switch that you can adjust the pressure to fit your needs.

[@TractorFella]

Great info! Thank you!

[@Altruistic-Viking]

Merry what’s left of Christmas 🎄🎅🏻 and happy new year wishes to you and your family 🇩🇰🙏 Is it just me or does more or less all umericans have generators ? I’m genuinely surprised by the instability of the electric grid if that’s the reason…

[@tiredoldmechanic1791]

The electric utilities are mostly owned by corporations who don't like to spend money to keep up with maintenance like cutting the brush and trees away from the lines or replace power poles so when a storm comes through, the lines get damaged. The power companies can write off storm damage against their profits. There were a couple of poles down the road from my house that were installed when the power was run in the late 1930s. I could see right through them. Instead of the pole holding the wires up, the wires were holding the poles up. I sent pictures to the power company and nothing was done for 2 years so I sent them to the public service commission and the poles were replaced within a month.

[@Altruistic-Viking]

@@tiredoldmechanic1791 thank you for explaining, I should have guessed it a matter of profit, in most of Europe the electric services/infrastructure is controlled by government thus avoiding these problems

[@TractorFella]

Merry Christmas! 🎄 🎅 Our issues historically have been due to tree overgrowth. In my area, it was notorious for losing power when this generator was installed by the previous owners some twenty-x years ago. They've been doing trimming and improvements over the last few years. Our issue was most-likely due to a small animal. As sad as that is. They touche the wrong spots and blows a fuse. Here's a video of what they did to fix our issue, just at another location. Have a wonderful new year!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGbPgpeAh5msZ8ksi=P_Flbf39p5mA9k-y

[@Chris.Y.054]

Aaron, I hope you and your family have a great 2024. I figured you had the wires backwards when it didn’t work. Did you buy 2 replacement pressure switches? Can you find ones made of metal?

[@Chris.Y.054]

I forgot to mention, you were dealing with oil and had minimal spillage. Great job.

[@tiredoldmechanic1791]

Hobbs is a company that makes hour meters and low oil pressure alarms for equipment. They changed from a metal case to that plastic switch and had a lot of trouble with them leaking. I have a Generac generator that's a little newer model but much the same internally. I will have to look to see if I have the same switch. The generator I used before that is a Homelite like the one you pulled out. It's a small world. Why did your power go out?

[@TractorFella]

Hey there! Happy Holidays! A fuse blew on the line to our house at the power pole. The power company said that we most likely had a small animal touch the wrong spots. Here's a video of what they replaced. Small world indeed! kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGbPgpeAh5msZ8ksi=P_Flbf39p5mA9k-y

[@kevinclark8782]

The second blue wire you tied to ground is unnecessary. The ignition will ground out through the sensor.

[@TractorFella]

Gotcha. So I'm guessing they use 2 wires for the original sensor because it requires a ground due to it being plastic. Makes sense! Thanks!

[@danielwills9959]

​@@TractorFellaUr guess would be correct. I have been working on generacs for years. I cut my teeth on alot of this exact unit, In my early days.

[@TractorFella]

Awesome! Up until this day, it's been flawless for us. But, parts don't last forever. Thank you very much for the comment and info! 🍻